JudyObscure

Agree with Hincandenza that the problem isn't always gender. That's probably why I disliked "Women from Venus,etc." My father is an artist, my brother an artist and a gourmet cook, call either one to ask what color to paint the living room or what herb to use with lamb and you'd better be prepared to hold the phone for 45 minutes. Many of the women I know who are most vocal with outrage over male sexism are the first ones to take it for granted that the man will be taking out the garbage and fixing the car. Yes, some men do leave the toilet seat up, but almost every woman I know leaves the toilet lid up letting all those sewer gases into my home. Dan and Mike were just plain unkind to Sierra, no one wants every mistake in every challenge thrown in their face. As my mother, the ax wielding gardener used to say, "Why can't people just be nice to each other?"

And yet ... that's one of the things I love about the show, because, unlike in real life where sexist men go happily along for years, never paying consequences, often totally unaware that they're even being offensive, here we get to watch and wait for that wonderful moment when women vote them out. Snuff. The tribe has spoken. Rodney has probably been spouting his inane viewpoints all his life and never been called on it. Now he gets to go home and read what we think of him on the internet and probably get hate mail and hear remarks made by strangers. I'm almost feeling sorry for him just writing this. The valuable thing is that thousands of men like him, or borderline like him, will hear how they sound to others and maybe learn something. I honestly think this is a socially valuable show and that the viewer's tendency to pick it apart is a good thing that helps us learn about ourselves.

That truly is a coincidence because your "snorf, snorf, snorf" on the Survivor thread six minutes ago did the same thing to me!

I have zero tolerance for people who nag others about their weight. They always hide behind the, "I'm just thinking of his/her health excuse," when it's clearly just a case of wanting them to be thin because that's what they want to look at. When someone discovers a weight loss plan that doesn't come with a 98% failure rate over three years -- call me. That includes you Dr. Phil. What happened to your Seven Keys of Complication diet?

I know Lindsey has a deluded vision of herself as the most awesome person ever but I was still surprised to hear her go out of the game early saying, "I wouldn't have done anything different." Her constantly confrontational manner over every single thing from who watches the fire the most to Rodney's "Hold women to a higher standard," -- which he clearly doesn't even understand -- lost her a chance at a million dollars, but if she had it to do over again she would do exactly the same thing. She's a perfect example of someone who would rather be right than happy.

Sorry, Kromm, my "In defense of Rodney," was meant in a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek way, intended more to say that although Rodney is a complete idiot about women and everything else, Dan and Mike were even worse, because they've written every single one of us off as exactly the same, totally dumb and predictable. Sometimes I type things and forget you all can't see the disgusted head shaking I'm doing. Now, I'm thinking about Lindsey saying that Rodney had bad morals. What? Again, I know he's an idiotic blowhard, but who the hell is Lindsey, of all people to judge someone else's morals?

Agreed. Hali sounded like Nina had been stealing food or something. Jenn doesn't seem able to like anything but chickens, she hadn't known Shirrin long enough to be dissing her for nothing worse than a little cheerful chatter. Jenn complained on the first day about having to put up with someone with a disability. As Sierra would say, those two are dead to me.

I have to say a word in defense of Rodney. First of all, Sierra is right, horses have higher IQs and he can't help that, second, he believes there are two kinds of women; angels and whores. That's twice as much individuality as Dan or Mike or the author of "Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus," will allow us. Thinking that all three and a half billion of us are just alike is my pet peeve and when it comes from these prizes, none whom have probably been close enough to more than a dozen women combined to voice theories, it's particularly hard to tolerate. I'll bet Kelly is more analytical and less likely to think with her emotions than either of those three musky misogynists, all of whom have gone off to nurse hurt feelings, in the short time we've known them. Which reminds me, if I had a potential three inch scar across the front of my forehead, I would have had to leave the game and see a plastic surgeon immediately, because, vanity, thy name is me.

Thanks, Obviously, bless your observational skills. I listened to that scene a second time yesterday and still didn't catch it all. When JF wants to give us information, like all the rapid briefing Lord Grantham was giving us in the beginning, about why they were going to the castle and whose butlers were going, etc. it's rattled off so quickly I can't take it in. We'll just have to wait and see if Bertie's a user and loser, or the adorable, self-deprecating Huge Grant I was trying to turn him into. Why do I have this dread that Edith is going to fall for him, Bertie will propose, Robert will know it's just for Edith's money and talk him out of the marriage at the very moment Edith is waiting at the church?

I hope hair goes with clothes. I have to talk about Edith's hair when she was ready for bed and her father came in to talk to her. Perfect ringlets? I thought that looked so unreal. I watch a lot of very old movies and the way those late 1920's hair styles look when down is waved to the ears and then straight-ish, frizzy hair the rest of the way down, because that's what being wrapped into a little bun all day does to curly hair. I was just reminded of this while watching Gloria Swanson in 1931's Indiscreet on Youtube. Her hair looked just like Edith's in the first scenes, then, about ten minutes in, she takes it down and there it is, long frizz. I have naturally curly hair and that's what it would do in that situation. I'm also still curious about the Downton, upstairs women standing around with their arms hanging straight down their sides like they're in front of a firing squad. I thought "ladies," bent one or both arms at the elbow for a more feminine look. They did a lot of standing like Louise Brooks is here; hands on hips, shoulders forward. This would be a good position for Mary to sigh over having to live with Edith.

Bertie did say to Edith that he had no ambition, he was happy as he was, but I thought it was just his way of saying that he was content. He seemed to have been career army when he was asked to manage the castle, so I wouldn't call that begging for scraps but just moving from the position of army officer to something he thought he would like better and that would be useful to the family. Was Lord Grantham saying he thought Bertie was rude? I didn't quite catch all that was said as they were setting out to hunt. It's beginning to look like accepting an invitation to hunt is stepping into a booby trap for social error.

I loved your whole post, Fake Britt, particularly this. My husband and I laughed till we cried on our first date and still are laughing every day, but neither of us are in the habit of telling prepared jokes, which tend to fall flat as often as not -- see Kaitlyn with the group on the first episode. Whitney as Charlotte is perfect! Just another reason for me to believe, if she can get Chris to the altar, she'll make a go of it if she has to put herself in a separate part of the house for most of the day.

Det. Ellzy thinks normal girl roommates spend the evenings in their quilted pink robes giving each other home perms and giggling. I hope no one ever tells him about girls who come home form class, change into their club clothes, leave, stay out to three doing shocking things. I don't think some of my housemates knew my name. Poor Nathan, wasn't he sad when he lifted his shirt to show his slender white body? Of course he had scratch marks, skin like that would break out from strong fabric softener. I loved Keith in the final interview with Daniel, egging him on to talk about rude people. I thought he came close to getting Daniel to say that those who lacked courtesy deserved to die.

Eurekagirl quote: With all respect, I'm genuinely curious about this. I've seen the same viewpoint from several people here and, although I don't know if Mike talked about his beliefs or not, I don't see why, if he did, it would justify Lindsey ridiculing those beliefs. To me that's like saying it would be okay to make dead sister jokes to Rodney because he has something about her tattooed on his arm. Like Mike saying, "I didn't see you gather any firewood, maybe your dead sister did it while I wasn't looking." Not funny and out of line to me.  

Andi had a cooking date with one of her guys. I forget his name, but he had become a front runner after he made a really great long shot in a basketball game and Andi got all swooney like she does over jocks. Anyway, it was a disaster. He pouted and gave Andi the silent treatment after saying, several times, that he never, ever entered the kitchen for anything but a can of beer. Come to think of it, it was a very revealing date. Ask a guy to do something he hates and see how good a sport he is about it. Speaking of decorating, I felt sort of sad for Whitney when she saw how nicely turned out Chris's house was. I'll bet his sisters helped. I expect most women would like to start with a fairly bare canvas and create her own style. Jade had looked around and said it needed a, "woman's touch," but it seemed fine to my minimalist tastes. Who knows what sort of fringed cowboy lamps Jade had in mind?

Gathering up mind scraps, putting them back together.

So far we know that Lindsey is the strongest person on the planet, the hardest working person on the island, and that if she had a beard she could start a fire with it.

Early in Farmer Chris's season, Jimmy Kimmel came along on one of the dates and kind of made fun of lots of The Bachelor clichés. It was funny in a way, but one wise Previously Poster (can't remember which one of you) said that when the show starts to mock itself it has sort of jumped the shark. I agree. I want the show to get back to its corn ball roots of fairy tell dates in ball gowns and castle settings and moonlight dates in Venice. I want the leads to be extremely good looking so we can believe everybody wants them. I want them to at least pretend to be caught up in the romance, and leave the snarking to us.

My original decision to follow this series was based on it coming on at 8PM. Now, I'll probably have to quit watching due to a chronic condition I have know as Sleepy-head. Darn.

I'm hoping Shirin and Lindsey both make it to the merge, because I think they might clash like two wild monkey women going after the same banana -- with Shirin winning the battle.

Every time he talks I hear Jon Stewart doing Mitch McConnell.

I know. Every year it amazes me that in a game to win a million dollars, pretty much based on your ability to get along with people, someone is always bossy, and someone is always calling other people out. I picture the Mikes of the game going home to a wife who has been planning how to spend the mil and telling her, "Sorry. It just bothered me so much that I was collecting more firewood than anyone else that I just had to make an issue of it." So I think Mike is an idiot and he may or may not have been talking about his religion, I imagine they all end up talking about stuff that bores the others, but none of that excuses Lindsey. You don't get to say something racist about all African Americans if you don't like Will and you don't get to grossly disrespect a religion because you don't like Mike. Lindsey just showed everyone that she has a three year-old's vision of a grandpa God, and that she thinks someone saying they're a Christian is them saying they think of themselves as like Christ, when it's sort of the opposite. One of the most basic tenets of Christianity being that you know you're too much of a loser to ever get to Heaven on your own, so you need Christ's atonement to help you out. Of course Lindsey wouldn't understand the dichotomy of worshipping someone unlike yourself, because she has told us many times, that most awesome, amazing person who she worships is Lindsey.

Fake Britt quote: Yep, I thought it was kind of cool that Chris mentioned how funny Becca was over and over. According to the self-help books like "The Rules," men don't like funny women, but Chris really responded to it. If the show hadn't already designated Kaitlyn as "the funny one," and Becca as "the virgin," I think we would have had a chance to see more of Becca's humor. She had Chris's family practically rolling on the floor and the little bits I heard were funnier to me than Kaitlyn's jokes which were usually a little too crass for my taste.

Everyone is so offensive it's like they got the Big Brother cast by mistake. Dan insults Rodney's mother, Rodney insults every person in Texas, and Lindsey insults every religious person on earth. Good work, guys.

Ashley and JP once said that they considered the ring at the end to mean, "We agree to start dating," because nothing during the show is "normal" dating. Even in the real world, for many people, an engagement is a trial period, not a firm commitment to marry. I'm not upset over the idea of people getting engaged after only a few months of dating. Until they send out the invitations, they're not hurting anyone if they change their minds.